This Thing Called Life
by hpfreak015
Summary: 6 kids all from different backgrounds, try to figure out this thing called LIFE. Jasper: raised in an abusive and neglected home, can he rise above the ashes? Alice: Her parents have all the money she needs, but what if all she wants is their love? ....
1. Summary

6 kids all from different backgrounds, try to figure out this thing called LIFE. Jasper: raised in an abusive and neglected home, can he rise above the ashes? Alice: Her parents have all the money she needs, but what if all she wants is their love? Emmett: His mother was killed long ago in a terrible car accident, he's trying to take care of his dad while taking care of himself. Rosalie: Perfection is her mother's standard, and Rosalie never seems to be good enough. Edward: Orphaned at an early age, he struggles to carry on. Bella: A heartbroken father never makes things easy, especially when you only live for others.

All Human. Obvious Pairings…OR ARE THEY? Lol. Mildly depressing, FYI.

Coming Soon.


	2. Jasper and Levi

**Just to explain how this is going to work…these are going to be journal entries of our favorite characters writing about their lives. When they write a memory, they will write like they are actually there.**

Jasper's Journal: 1st entry

I was born on March 23rd, to the dismay of my parents. From the moment of my birth I was not desired, although I didn't take it personally, my older brother was dispised just as much as I was. It was thanks, almost entirely, to Levi that I survived my early childhood at all. If left to my incapable mother, I would have died of neglect very early on. Levi told me that it wasn't always like this, a manically depressed mother and alcoholic father. He said that he could remember a time that they were a happy family, but this was when he was a young child…before Dad lost his job…before Mom lost her mind.

We lived in a very rual part of Washington state, closer to Canada then to the closest American town. Our house was the only one for about three miles, and it sat, decrepit, on a long forgotten farm. I like to believe that my mother tried her hardest, but she just wasn't strong enough. Some of my first memories are of Levi, they are some of my only memories from my very early childhood.

May, my fouth year of life:

Our country is a great place, Levi told me so, and I know Levi's right because he's already sixteen years old. He says we should be happy to live in such a great place, that there are kids starving in far away places, but I'm pretty hungry now. I haven't had anything to eat today; my punishment for wetting the bed last night. Right now I'm lying out side under the sun, trying to see the shapes in the clouds. I wish Levi was here, he can see all sorts of things I can't. But Levi's at school, and I'm home with Mom. I don't really see Mom much, I miss her though. I wish I could make her smile. Instead, she stays in her room all day, sometimes sleeping, sometimes crying. The wind rushes through my blond bowl cut hair, and I start to sing to myself _America, the Beautiful_. The clouds continue to roll over head as I try to sing above my grumbling stomach.

Suddenly, I hear my Dad's truck coming down the street. I quickly roll to my stomach and hop to my feet, then sprint to the house as fast as my little legs will take me. As soon as I'm inside, I run straight to me and Levi's bedroom and climb in the closet shutting the door behind me. I know to keep quiet, if he doesn't see me, he might not get mad. Too soon I can hear him open the door and stumble inside. I know that he's angry, I can tell by listening to his footsteps. Hopefully, he'll just take more money and leave…I try to keep my breathing quiet as he continues to move around. I can't help but get scared, and tears well up in my eyes. I wish I was brave like Levi, I wish Levi was home. I try to remember how many hours were left until Levi comes home…Two more hours, I think, and my heart sinks. I keep praying that I'll hear the door shut again, but the seconds go by…

"BOY!" Comes my father's voice from the kitchen. "GET OUT HERE!"

I hastily wipe my eyes, and run out to where he's calling from, knowing that it'll be worse if I stay hidden. I cautiously come around the corner and go to where he's standing. His blond hair is starting to gray, and it hangs unattractivly to his shoulders. The angry face staring at me is unshaven, his cold blue eyes unforgiving. His smell of alcohol has already permeated the room. He sways slightly on the spot as he points a shaky finger at me.

"Where've you been?" he slurrs slightly.

"In my room, sir." I answer quietly. He kneels down to my level, I inwardly cringe.

"Speak up!" He shouts, and I jump.

"In my room, sir!" I say loudly, my shaky voice gives away my fear.

He grabs my worn and frayed overalls, and pulls me toward his yellowed teeth. "THEN WHY ARE YOU ALL DIRTY, YOU FILTHY LITTLE SHIT?"

I'd forgotten to brush the dirt and grass of my back…Tears well to my eyes and I brace myself.

"QUIT CRYING!" he yells, and his free hand slaps my face. My head is so much smaller than his hand that it hits the entire left side of my head. I really start to sob, and my father throws me to the ground disgusted. I lay on the ground, trying to stop crying, curling up in a ball. My father kicks me hard in the back, and I can't breath, but the pain is so intense that I scream.

"IF I EVER CATCH YOU LYING TO ME AGAIN, I SWEAR TO GOD, YOU'RE DEAD!" he practically screams, and stomps back out the door to his truck. I'm still crying on the floor, tasting the blood from my lip that split when he threw me to the ground, when Levi comes home. I hear the door open again, and stop crying, settling for snifling instead. The pain has left and I want to be strong like Levi would be.

"Jasper?" Levi calls out in a half whisper, he knows better than to shout and wake my mother. I hear his slow footsteps come into the kitchen, and he kneels down next to me. "Hey, buddy, you're okay, I'm here. Nothings going to happen now."

He carefully lifts me into his arms, I cry out from the pain surging in my ribs and back. He softly shushs me, and carrys me into our room and lays me on his bed. He leaves and comes back with a wet washcloth. He slowly and carefully cleans up my lip.

"What happened, bud?" he asks as he finishes wiping my lip and continues to clean my face.

"D-d-d-dad ca-ca-came hom-me," I stutter, still crying. I take a breath and try to calm myself. "I ran inside, and hid, but he called me and I went out, and he yelled and hit me, and I cried, and cried."

"Shhhhhh…" he whispered, nervously looking out the door. "It's okay buddy, it's okay, I'm here now."

He sits with me, soothing me and stroaking my hair. I calm down, and just lay there. "I wish I was strong like you, Levi."

"You are, and one day you'll be just as big and tall as I am!"

"I love you Levi."

"I love you too, buddy."

And I slowly fell asleep.

**So, yeah, pretty depressing, but I need to set up each characters background before they meet. SO YEAH, there is Jasper. He's so cute. It's sad, I know. Read and Review…Tell me if I'm wasting my time.**


	3. Alice's Fourth of July

Alice's Diary

I was born April 2nd, and as the saying goes, I had a silver spoon in my mouth. My parents were very wealthy, no door was left closed to a Brandon. I am Mary Alice Brandon, the only child of Kathy and Martin Brandon. There was nothing I couldn't buy, everything a girl could ever want resided in my bedroom. All but one thing, my parents love.

From the moment of my birth I was given to a nanny, the only time I saw my mother was when we were at a party, making an apperance. It was a sad and lonely childhood, no nanny stayed for long. Who could blame them, who wanted to raise a child that was not their own?

July, Five years old

"Come along, Mary, your mother and father are waiting for you!" Laura, my then-nanny said. "Careful not to mess your hair!"

I trotted carefully, in my pretty new blue sundress. My long black hair was piled in curls on my head. I felt prettier than any princess. When we got to the door, a town car was waiting for us. My mother and father were standing outside.

"Momma, Daddy!" I yelled, rushing to hug them. I had not seen them in three months, they had been doing buisness in Europe. I crashed into my mothers legs, hugging her tightly.

She patted my back gingerly. "Careful now Mary, you're dirtying mummy's new skirt."

"Alright all," my father said impatiently. "The Govenor is not a patient man."

Laura placed me carefully into the car, and my father and mother slid in on either side, and then we were off.

"Momma, I learned to tied my shoes! I can do it now all by myself!" I said, puffing my chest out with pride.

"Great Job, Mary, now lets have some quiet time." My mother said, powdering her nose.

I concentrated on staying quiet, which was not easy when I had so many things to say.

Finally, we pulled up to the Govenor's big brick house. There were countless people there, each in various patterns of red, white and blue. As we got out, a very round stout man greet us.

"Brandon!" the man shouted. "How the hell are you!?"

My mother quickly grabbed my hand, and we both turned and smiled.

"Very well, Govenor, how are you?" my father answered smoothly.

"Good, good! Kathy, you look more beautiful everytime I see you."

"Oh, Govenor," my mother cooed. "You are quite the charmer."

"Part of the job," the govenor said, and my parents and him laughed. I didn't get it. When the laughter subsided, he noticed me.

"My goodness! Is this little Mary? She's growing like a weed!" the govenor said, beaming at me. "How are you, sweetheart? How old are you now?"

My mother caught my eye, and I knew what to do.

"I'm five!" I said holding up my hand. "I'm much better now that we're at your house!" I said with a little curtsy. My mother nodded her head in approval, and my face broke into a smile.

"Now _there's_ a charmer!" the govenor said, roaring with laughter. He patted my head. "Now, you don't need to hang around us boring adult any more, Sweetheart, you go around to the backyard, I think your friend is waiting for you!"

My mother nodded, and I scampered away to find Rosalie. Rosalie was at every party I went to with my parents, she was my bestest and only friend. I ran around the sprawling house and found my self in a very large grassy yard. There were a group of kids playing with sparklers, and I could pick Rosalie's bouncing blonde curls from way back here. I ran to her.

"Rosalie!" I cried out.

"Alice!" she sang and flew towards me, dropping her sparkler. We caught each other in a hug, and giggled with excitement.

"I missed you!" Rosalie said, letting go of me.

"I missed you too! You look so pretty!" I said looking at her. It was true. Her long golden blonde hair was pulled into two pigtails, each one cascading into bouncy curls. She was dressed in a red sundress with white lace trimming and a blue bow around her middle She looked like a little porcline doll all done up.

"You know how my momma is," she said heavily. I knew this too. Rosalie was lucky enough to have her mommy around all the time. But her mom always wanted Rosalie to look her best…and that's not always fun. "You look pretty too. Is that a new dress?"

"Of course!" I said giggling, and she followed suit. "What do you want to do? Play house?"

"Yeah! Let's see if we can get anyone else to play!" Rosalie suggested looking around. "How about Edward?"

I thought about it. Edward was a small boy with light brown hair and green eyes. He was nice, but he could be really mean too.

"I dunno, Rosalie…Remember last time…" I warned her. "Remember? First he was so _bossy_, then he pulled our hair because he said we weren't playing right.

"Let him try to do that again!" Rosalie said bravely. So, against my better judgment, we marched over to Edward who was sword fighting with sparklers.

"EDWARD!" we called, and he looked around, causing him to be burned by the boy he was sword fighting against.

"OUCH!" He yelled. Then his eyebrows furrowed together as he turned to face the boy. "You better watch it!" Then he turned to face us.

"What do _you_ two want?" he said examining the burn on his hand.

"We want you to play house with us?" we asked. He concidered for a moment. Then crossed his arms and stuck out his chin.

"Depends on who my wife is," he said cockily. Rosalie and I looked at eachother.

"Rosalie," I said, and Rosalie punched my arm. I laughed.

"Alright then," Edward said, looking Rosalie up and down. "What are you?" he asked me.

"I'm your daughter!" I said giggling.

"Where's out house?" Edward asked, looking wary. I looked around.

"Those bushes over there," I said pointing. They nodded, and we ran over, Rosalie and I ran inside right away. Edward paused for a moment, then marched through the front door.

"Darling!" he called obnoxiously in a really deep voice. "I'm home!"

"Daddy!" I called back in a baby voice. I ran over and gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek.

"Bleh!" he said, wiping his face. I pretended not to notice.

"Wife!" he called to Rosalie. "Wife, where's my dinner?"

"Make it yourself you pig!" she yelled at him. "Alice and I are going shopping."

She tugged on my arm and we walked out the door.

"Now wait just one minute," Edward called, his voice back to normal. "That's not how you play."

"I can play however I want!" Rosalie called back.

"Oh, yeah?" asked Edward going over to meet her.

"Yeah!" she said staring him down. They were toe to toe, I stood to the side, knowing I'd have to break it up soon.

"OH, YEAH?!" He shouted, shoving a finger against her shoulder. Rosalie took both hands and shoved as hard as she could. Edward fell over backwards, "Yeah!!" She said as she stood over him. He angrily got back up and brushed himself off. I place a hand on each one of their shoulders.

"Now guys," I said cautiously. They both glared at me. I backed away, hands up.

"Edward Mason, you are so mean!" Rosalie said. Edward reached forward and before I could stop him he pulled, hard on Rosalie's pigtail. She started crying and ran back into our house. I looked at him for a second.

"Her momma's gonna get real mad at her, and it's all your fault Edward. That wasn't very nice!" I yelled at him.

"You girls are such babies!" he said back.

"She's gunna get a spanking all because of YOU!" I said.

"It's just a pigtail," he said looking away, but I could see the guilt in his eyes.

"Her momma doesn't like when Rosalie messes her hair," I say glancing at Rosalie who is trying to fix her hair. "You should say your sorry." Edward's shoulder's slumped.

"I guess so." He said slowly, and I lead him back into the house.

"Rosalie, Edward has something to say," I annouce, shoving him forward.

"Rosalie, I'm really sorry, I didn't know your momma didn't like you messing up your hair." Edward said, staring at the ground.

"You should be!" Rosalie said, sniffing and wiping away tears. I glared at her. "But it's okay, I shouldn't have been so mean to you.

"Group hug!" I say and force both of them together.

"For someone so small, you sure are annoying," Edward said to me pushing away from both of us.

A loud boom sounded from above us, and we looked up. Bright sparks were raining down from the sky.

We all _ooohed _ and _ahhhhed. _ The three of us ran back to the clearing where the adults had joined the kids and everyone's face was to the sky.

We sat on the grass next to each other, Rosalie on one side, Edward on the other, and we watched the fireworks. Even though I knew that my momma and daddy would be leaving again soon, I didn't let it bother me, for now I had my friends and I was happy.


End file.
